Fiber optics, consisting generally of glass or plastic fibers along which light signals are passed, are finding ever increasing use for a variety of different purposes, such as communications, for example. Signal transmission through optical fibers requires means to concatenate fibers in systems applications. On occasion, an optical fiber becomes broken impairing its ability to transmit optical signals and requiring either replacement, substitution of another fiber therefor or repair. In many situations, the only practical solution to field application installations or repairs of optical fibers is to perform the necessary operations without removing the fiber from its use environment. Whether as an initial installation or as a repair measure, fibers must be properly prepared and provision for protection of fiber-to-fiber junctions must be insured in a manner as described herein.
To join or relate the ends of two individual fibers satisfactorily, or to relate the ends of broken fibers so that highly efficient transfer of light signals across the junction can be achieved essentially requires three things: (1) the end of the optical fibers to be interconnected must be faced-off precisely at 90 degrees to the fiber longitudinal dimension; (2) the faced-off ends of the fibers to be joined must be located very closely to one another and precisely aligned axially; and (3) the holder or connector securing the fiber optics to meet conditions (1) and (2) must produce alignment of the centerlines of the two fibers.
A highly successful form of fiber optic connector includes two sets of three precisely uniform diameter rods which are extended along a fiber to be interconnected so as to hold the fiber within the interstice of the rods when the rods are arranged collinearly in a peripheral surface contacting manner. A ferrule with a deformable body wall is located about the three pins and included fiber and is crimped thereon to secure the fiber between the rods. Two fibers with their ends faced-off are included within separate sets of three pins and a connector ferrule, then fitted together by an alignment sleeve in order that they will have their ends facing one another and maintained slightly spaced with the fibers collinear. Such a connector is more fully described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 306,330, filed Sept. 30, 1981, now abandoned, for OPTICAL FIBER CONNECTORS by John Gresty and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
Known apparatus for securing a deformable connector onto an optical fiber are not completely satisfactory. One apparatus for this purpose is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,084 granted Aug. 12, 1980 "Device for Crimping Ferrules Onto Bundles of Optical Fibers". This patented device is a portable means for manually crimping metallic ferrules onto bundles of optical fibers in which a number of fibers are hexagonally arranged within the deformed metallic ferrules. However, the patented device will not provide satisfactorily firm and rigid crimping with controlled radial lines of force which will match the profile of the rods holding the fiber. Also, the necessity for a different crimping at more than one location along the rods cannot be provided by the patented device.